Police Station

Re "Gunman wounds officer at station," April 8 Someone walked into a Los Angeles Police Department station, a facility where nearly everyone is highly trained in gun usage and mentally prepared to use lethal force to end an encounter, and this would-be killer wasn't instantly disarmed by these people? Sure, let's arm schoolteachers. And market managers. And bus drivers. And crossing guards. And mail carriers. And secretaries in law office lobbies. And greeters at Costco. And why not kids?

April 13, 2014 | By Sergei L. Loiko, This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

MOSCOW -- Ukrainian forces launched an "anti-terrorist operation" in the city of Slavyansk on Sunday morning after pro-Russian separatists seized buildings in the eastern area of the country, acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook account. "Units from all law enforcement agencies of the country are being used [in the operation]," Avakov wrote. "God is with us!" Armed men in masks and unmarked camouflage uniforms stormed and seized administrative buildings and police stations in Slavyansk and at least two other towns in the coal-mining region of Donetsk on Saturday.

A man shot by Alhambra police inside the police headquarters lobby on Friday morning has died, a coroner's spokesman said. One or more Alhambra police officers fired their guns about 7:30 a.m. inside the police station on Commonwealth Avenue, hitting a suspect, said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. Officials said they were still gathering information and could not yet say exactly what happened inside the station. Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

April 12, 2014 | By Sergei L. Loiko, This post has been corrected, as indicated below.

MOSCOW - Gunmen wearing camouflage uniforms seized two administrative buildings Saturday in a town in eastern Ukraine and separatists attacked sites in two other towns, drawing the vow of a tough response from a top Ukrainian official who blamed the violence on Russian “aggression.” The assailants, armed with automatic rifles, seized a police station and Security Service office in Slavyansk, in the eastern Donetsk region. They captured at least 20 submachine guns and 400 handguns in the station's armory and began distributing the weapons to dozens of separatists, the UNIAN news agency reported.

Dozens of prisoners broke out of their cells and tried to escape early Monday morning as Nigerian authorities battled with gunmen at a police station on the edge of Abuja. Two officers were killed during the gunfight, police spokesman Frank Mba said in a statement . Thirty prisoners broke free during the melee, Mba said, but all but five were returned to custody thanks to "tactical and coordinated efforts. " Two suspected members of the "large number" of attackers were also arrested, according to the police statement.

Our City Council just approved spending $4 million in taxpayer dollars to buy land on Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills to build a new police station ("City Votes to Buy Valley LAPD Site," Oct. 20). Once again we are shaking our heads in disbelief. Why would our City Council spend $4 million in taxpayer dollars when they have been sitting on five acres of land at the old GM site in Panorama City, which was donated to the city by General Motors for building a much-needed north Valley station?

A man suspected of raping a Laguna Beach woman turned himself in Friday after police sought the public's help in finding him. Babak Azadgilani, known as "Bobby," 26, of Laguna Niguel, turned himself in at 5:30 p.m. at the front counter of the Laguna Beach Police Department and was booked on a $100,000 warrant for rape, Capt. Jason Kravetz wrote in an email. Azadgilani is suspected of assaulting the woman in her home during the late afternoon of April 21, according to police. The victim contacted police after the assault and police believe Azadgilani fled on his BMW motorcycle before officers arrived at the scene.

The man killed in the lobby of Alhambra police headquarters Friday brandished a knife before officers fatally shot him, said L.A. County sheriff's officials. The man walked into the lobby about 7:30 a.m. carrying a black backpack, but when officers tried to speak to him in several different languages, he was unresponsive and incoherent, said officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The suspect eventually pulled out a large knife from his backpack and three of the five officers standing in the lobby shot the man, authorities said. Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The City Council will hold a meeting Tuesday to allow the public a chance to comment on the proposed financing of a new $8.8-million police station. The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in the Kay Dalton Room of the Monrovia Community Center, 119 W. Palm St. The focus of the hearing will be the formation of a special assessment district that would raise the funds for the proposed 30,000-square-foot station.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a $1.29-million bid for construction and remodeling of its overcrowded, 30-year-old police station. The project is a compromise that will serve the city eight to 10 years, Mayor Robert Bartlett said. Monrovia residents have twice rejected ballot measures that would have raised funds to build a new police facility.

Re "New details on shooting at station," April 9 The Times quotes Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck as saying, in regard to the shooting this week at a police station: "By the grace of God, the suspect did not come in with the assault weapons that he has had access to. " While I also am grateful that an assault weapon was not the shooter's firearm of choice, I believe that, with all due respect to Beck, it was not a god who saved lives...

Re "Gunman wounds officer at station," April 8 Someone walked into a Los Angeles Police Department station, a facility where nearly everyone is highly trained in gun usage and mentally prepared to use lethal force to end an encounter, and this would-be killer wasn't instantly disarmed by these people? Sure, let's arm schoolteachers. And market managers. And bus drivers. And crossing guards. And mail carriers. And secretaries in law office lobbies. And greeters at Costco. And why not kids?

The man accused of opening fire in a Mid-City Los Angeles police station Monday night, wounding a police officer, has been identified as 29-year-old man who had access to assault weapons, one of which was allegedly waiting in his car, officials said Tuesday. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said at Tuesday's Police Commission meeting that the suspect - identified as Daniel C. Yealu -- used a Glock pistol and had another weapon in his car parked at the station. Officials on Tuesday displayed weapons and ammunition they said were found during a search of Yealu's home and car, which was parked outside the LAPD Wilshire Division on Venice Boulevard near South La Brea Avenue when the shooting unfolded about 8:30 p.m. “By the grace of God, the suspect did not come in with the assault weapons that he has had access to, one of which I believe was in his vehicle,” Beck said.

CAIRO - Even by the baroque standard being set by the Egyptian judiciary under the nearly 9-month-old military-backed government, the scene that unfolded Monday in a courthouse south of the capital was extraordinary: 529 defendants simultaneously sentenced to death. The verdict, which drew widespread condemnation and expressions of incredulity from human rights groups and legal organizations, was handed down at just the second session of a mass trial of nearly 550 men. The defendants, described as supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, were accused of acts of violence including attacking a police station and killing a police officer.

They aren't sure what his name is and they don't know where he went. But Fontana police have a photograph of the 40-year-old man who was "secured" in an interview room Monday but still managed to escape and stroll out of the police station. Detectives say the man who calls himself Ramon Torres and Ramon Martinez Ramirez "goes by many aliases. " Police were investigating a verbal altercation that occurred Sunday when the suspect pulled a gun and threatened to kill people inside a house as he attempted to collect rent for a third party.

A 34-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of drugging and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl, Riverside police said Wednesday night. The victim had run away from her home and was given a ride by a man in a car late last week, according to the Riverside Police Department. The suspect drove the girl to a secluded area and sexually assaulted her, police said. The man then drove the victim to a Corona hotel, police said, where she was given drugs and further sexually assaulted.

At least 14 people were arrested in connection with a rally for justice for Kelly Thomas on Saturday, after protesters blocked intersections and streets, intimidated drivers and refused to disperse, according to the Fullerton Police Department. About 150 people gathered Saturday morning in front of the Fullerton police station to demand justice for Thomas less than a week after a jury found former police officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli not guilty in Thomas' death. Two people were arrested for vandalism, one for assault, one for robbery and 10 for refusing to follow an order to disperse, according to Fullerton police.

When Tina Kinser showed up at the Fullerton police station Saturday morning, she had a flashback to the summer of 2011. Almost everything seemed the same. The demands for justice blaring out of bullhorns. The people in Guy Fawkes masks holding signs with pictures of her brother's bloodied face. And the way the crowd of protesters swelled so big it spilled onto Commonwealth Avenue. "It looks just like the protest I came to two years ago," said Kinser, the youngest sister of Kelly Thomas, the homeless man with schizophrenia who died after being beaten unconscious by Fullerton police officers.